The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for arranging or placing in order the servicing sequence of storey calls of elevator systems containing storage elements for storing the storey calls and controllable by means of storey transmitters, there being provided a scanning device or scanner for scanning or sampling the storage elements.
The purpose of such type equipment is to realize a more uniform servicing of all storey calls while striving for shorter, compensated waiting times at the various storeys of a building or other structure serviced by the elevator.
With a prior art apparatus, as taught in German Pat. No. 597,151, a so-called searcher or finder device is arranged between the storage elements storing the storey calls and the travel control of the elevator. In the presence of at least one storey call this searcher device stepwise samples the storage elements in a predetermined sequence and renders effectual the stored storey calls individually at the travel control of the elevator in accordance with the predetermined sequence. The searcher device comprises two slip contacts arranged upon a common shaft driven by a stepping mechanism. These slip contacts scan stationary contacts operatively correlated to the individual storey or landings and which are connected with contacts of the storey relays forming the storage elements. When a call is infed then the searcher device begins to rotate until, upon reaching a stored storey call, the drive of such searcher device is placed out of operation by means of a contact of the storey relay which now is deenergized. After completion of the storey call the slip contacts remain in the position which they have attained. If, however, there is stored a further call, then the searcher device again becomes operative.
A drawback of this state-of-the-art equipment resides particularly in the fact that the servicing of the storey calls is accomplished in a fixed, cyclic sequence, so that storey calls appearing at a later point in time are serviced before storey calls which have arrived earlier. Consequently, in the case of elevator installations servicing a larger number of storeys or landings of a building sometimes long and annoying waiting times are present for certain of the building storeys or landings.